


Braids

by Seiya234



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 18:42:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seiya234/pseuds/Seiya234
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ace needed the Doctor's help. </p><p>Though, being Ace, she wasn't actually going to ASK, mind you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Braids

Until she traveled on the TARDIS, there had only ever been one person who braided her hair. 

Her mother both refused to let Ace cut it, and refused to help her put it up.  “Do it yourself, you lazy girl," her mum spat at her the last time she remembered asking, when she was six.

Thus followed several years of messy pony tails and braids, strands of hair flying everywhere, and frustration of not being able to reach to get it perfect, and more importantly, out of her face.   

It was Manisha who first helped her with her hair, doing Ace’s brown locks into a tight French Braid, and then showed her how to do it on her head.  Ace’s first few tries were clumsy but eventually she got it.  

They made sure to meet before class started, to braid the other’s hair  

Those memories, of time spent with Manisha, her hands patiently plaiting her hair while they gossiped, were the only reason that Ace didn’t shave her head when she found herself on Iceworld.  

––  

One morning, about a month (as best as she could reckon) after she joined the Doctor, Ace woke to her hair utterly tangled in massive knots and snarls.  

Damn. She thought she had washed all that goo out when they got back on board last night.  

She tried for five minutes to unmuss her hair, but when the comb broke in her hair, she knew the time had come for help.  

\----

  Ace stomped in, carrying a comb and her hair….oh dear.

  “Flarkarian goo is the worst on hair, I’m afraid," he said, digging in his pocket for the industrial strength detangler that he had gotten in the habit of carrying his last regeneration.

Ace looked at him, clearly wanting to ask for his help, unable to do so.

"Why don’t you pull up a chair, and I’ll see what I can do to take care of your hair?" he asked for her.

There was a slight smile, and Ace pulled up a stool to sit on.

The Doctor got to work.

–-  
It only took him a half an hour and amazingly, he got her hair detangled with a minimum amount of fuss and pain.

And before she could jump off, he had expertly parted her hair into three bits, and began to braid it.

It had been too long since someone had braided her hair

Had showed her that they cared.

And it definitely was not making her tear up, nope. That was just the smell of the gel he had put in her hair to untangle it.

Yeah, that was it.

––

She silently came down the next day with a brush and hair tie.

The Doctor braided Ace’s hair every day after that, be it on the TARDIS, in the grandest palaces of Venus, or in the lowest jails of Bergenon V.

And when she had her own daughter, Ace made sure to do the same.

Well, until Nisha told her that she wanted to shave it all off, in which case Ace grinned and got out the razor.


End file.
